Yashua Klos

Seph Rodney Interviews Yashua Klos for The New York Times

“A DNA Test Led Yashua Klos to New Connections and New Art”
Seph Rodney

On the occasion of his inspiring solo debut at the Wellin Museum, he talks about Black labor, migration — and the family he recently discovered.

OUR LABOUR, 2020-2021, woodblock print on muslin and oil-based, relief block ink on dropcloth, mounted on canvas 15 ft. 6 in. x 38 ft. (4.7 x 11.6 m). © Yashua Klos. Photo by John Bentham.

“I like titles to have double meanings. If I’m lucky, I can find one with a triple meaning. “Our Labour” is first a reference to my family and the work that my family has done in the auto plants in Detroit. It’s a reclamation of a larger history of Black labor in America. But it’s also a larger historical context of the Black “our,” which has been excluded from having visual representation [in this nation’s history].”

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